


Casually Cruel in the Name of Being Honest

by WorkingChemistry



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Multi, Polyamory, United States of Auradon (Disney) Is Not Perfect, Warnings for Carlos’ childhood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-12 20:34:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28766394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WorkingChemistry/pseuds/WorkingChemistry
Summary: His point made, Carlos looks back to Chad and curls his lip at the sword pointed at him. “You ever kill anything with that, Charming?”“Unlike you, I find no pleasure in ending a life.” Chad snarls, equally disgusted. His scent flares with spiced anger.Carlos remains unaffected and chuckles; a low mad sound. “Right, but you’ll eat them with relish and wear their skin as leathers with pleasure. My mother is an artist, and an artist needs materials to create. They need an outlet for all that energy  or they’ll go... crazy.”
Relationships: Ben/Evie/Jay/Mal/Carlos de Vil
Comments: 6
Kudos: 61





	Casually Cruel in the Name of Being Honest

**Author's Note:**

> Officially I’m on hiatus. Unofficially I’m not really sure what I’m doing anymore. Hope y’all are doing well.

It’s still hard to comprehend that the VKs are trusting him enough to let them into their pack. It’s not quite the integration with the mainland that Ben was hoping for, but it’s miles better than the aggression from when they arrived. 

It probably helps that they think he’s still under their love spell, but Ben will take his advantages as they come. 

At the moment he’s being held back by the others while they watch Carlos get ganged up on. The Radcliffe girl, Ben can’t remember her name, stands back just far enough to not need to worry about being in the crossfire. Chad is on the attack, quick to defend an omega in distress.

“My mother is an artist.” Carlos protests. 

The Radcliffe girl snorts, drawing Carlos’s attention from Chad to her. It causes just the slightest pinch to his expression before it fades out to placid again. “Your mother thought so, back when they were friends. Must still think so if she kept that jacket, seeing as my mother designed it for her.” 

The Radcliffe girl flinches back, staring down at the silk jacket in disgust. Only hours earlier she’d been bragging sneaking it from her mother’s closet and now she looks like she wants to watch it burn. 

His point made, Carlos looks back to Chad and curls his lip at the sword pointed at him. “You ever kill anything with that, Charming?” 

“Unlike you, I find no pleasure in ending a life.” Chad snarls, equally disgusted. His scent flares with spiced anger. 

Carlos remains unaffected and chuckles; a low mad sound. “Right, but you’ll eat them with relish and wear their skin as leathers with pleasure. My mother is an artist, and an artist needs materials to create. They need an outlet for all that energy or they’ll go... _crazy_.” Now the laughter has turned high pitched, almost hysterical. “And who do you think got her the materials?”

“You.” Chad answers, but it’s flat. His sword has hesitantly lowered. Chad is quick to fight, but he’s not a bully. Ben can see and hear the worry, even though the Prince’s next words are harsh. “You alright there, puppy? Where’s your handlers?” 

“She drew on the walls at first, and worked with what Jasper and Horace brought her.” Carlos’ grin is wide and bright and chilling. “But they scattered to the other side of the isle once she started demanding skin.”

The smile drops unnaturally quickly so he can hold out his arms for display. Ben has noticed the scars before, he’s not that oblivious, but it’s only now that he can see what they are. Nasty words Ben’s never heard spoken aloud, some he doesn’t even know the meanings of, are interspersed among the delicate sketches of coats and stoles on lithe omegan bodies. Carlos’ words dance on the air in a mad cadence that mimics one Ben’s only heard in recordings. “There aren’t dogs on the isle, but there are other animals. I trapped and hunted and still the furs weren’t enough. They didn’t have spots. But you know what?” 

Carlos leans in with a stage whisper and another sly smirk that touches only his lips. His eyes remain dull, barely focusing on Chad. One of Carlos’ delicate, trembling fingers, traces over his own cheek. “I’ve got spots. I’ve got lots and lots of spots.”

Chad turns green and his hands shake. Behind him the Radcliffe girl is dry heaving. Still Chad gathers himself together and reaches for Carlos’ still outstretched arm. “C’mon, De Vill. I really think we need to find your pack.”

“My pack is the strongest on The Isle and no one on the Isle takes in strays.” Carlos grips Chad’s elbow tight and jerks him in, gaze suddenly sharp and lucid. “I might be a puppy, but a feral dog bites. I’ve killed nine people, Chad, but I haven’t skinned one yet. Cruella wants more leather and _if_ you stay out of my way, when we get thrown back to The Isle you won’t be coming with me.”

For a moment longer Carlos holds Chad’s gaze, seemingly oblivious to the sound of sick hitting marble behind them. Then he releases Chad and shoves him backward. With an airy wave, as though fanning away smoke, Carlos turns to walk away from the duo. “I might be the weakest in my pack, but that doesn’t mean I’m the weakest here. Don’t make that mistake again.” 

And with that Carlos is gone. 

Only now does Mal release her grip over Ben’s mouth. “Come on. He’s proven himself, and now we need to find him before he falls apart.“

That doesn’t sound... excellent. 

Ben casts a last glance at his shaken friend trying to comfort the vomiting Radcliffe girl. He’ll need to check on them later. 

He’s not yet grown attuned enough to pick out Carlos’ bland beta scent out from the rest of the others, but it hardly matters. Mal is a bloodhound, shoving everyone out of the way so she can blaze their trail. 

They find Carlos underneath the bleachers. His expression is still blank, even as he dry heaves. Blood streaks down his arm in new scratches left behind by nails. 

Jay and Mal take up post to guard the entrances. 

Ben hesitates, uncertain of what role he’s expected to play, but follows when Evie beckons. He kneels down next to Carlos awkwardly and tries for a soft smile when the boy’s wide eyes flick to him. Carlos assesses him and then dismiss him in almost the next instant. With a low whine, Carlos tips himself to the side to lean against Evie. 

He doesn’t speak, instead forming the complicated gestures Ben vaguely recognizes to be sign language. He really wishes he had bothered to learn it, but he’d had so many other languages pushed onto him that he’d rebelled at the suggestion of another. 

Evie strokes Carlos’ hair back, nuzzling the curls. “You did good, C.” He makes a few more gestures and Evie frowns, her own hands stilling. “No. Never, Carlos. We know the truth, Ben knows the truth too.”

“You’re safe, Carlos.” Ben tries, drawing a soft purr from his chest. He’s an omega so he knows something of providing comfort to others, even if he’s never been particularly good at it. 

When he looks up at Evie, she’s smiling at him encouragingly. Then she helps Carlos stand and drops a pair of probably stolen headphones over his ears. “Don’t listen to her anymore. Jay has music for you.”

Sure enough Jay is fiddling with a phone. Seconds later music starts, loud enough that Ben can hear it clearly. He goes to say something about lowering it and then stops himself. Hearing damage is probably the least of their worries right now. 

Carlos shuts his eyes and hooks a finger through Ben’s belt loop.

That seems to be some sort of signal, as Mal starts marching off toward the dorms. Ben, Evie, and Carlos hurry to follow. Well, Evie hurries and Ben tries to. Carlos doesn’t seem quite lucid enough to care. 

Jay, of course, brings up the rear. 

When they reach the boy’s room, Evie tugs Carlos and Ben to the closet immediately. Ben, unprepared for the shove, tumbles into a pile of bedding and clothes.

Carlos lands on top of him and doesn’t bother moving. The tiny beta tucks his face against Ben’s neck, the headphones getting in the way.

“Is he okay?”

“He’s fine. It was an act.” Jay snaps, taking up guard at the closet entrance. His low growl sends a shiver down Ben’s spine; the dark rumble a legitimate threat rather than the posturing Ben’s always heard from alphas. 

Evie nudges Jay’s shoulder with her own before nuzzling up under his jaw. “Hey, he didn’t mean it that way.”

Mal drops next to them wordlessly, lifting Ben and Carlos up so they’re resting on her thigh. The leather is warm against Ben’s cheek. She swipes her wrist over Ben’s cheek, scenting him. “It’s alright, Jay. Ben is new, he didn’t mean it that way.”

“Carlos is fine.” Jay repeats again.

Mal gives her own alpha rumble, a comforting sound that he didn’t know the VK’s could make. She follows it up with a chaste kiss to Carlos’ lips.

One that he returns, winding his arms around her neck. 

When she pulls back, Ben can see tears streaking down Carlos’ freckled cheeks. The young beta’s gaze is still distant as he flops one hand around in search of Evie. When he finds her, he pulls her down for a kiss as well.

Jay is already there to plant his own kiss to Carlos’ lips the second Evie is out of the way. Before he pulls back, he murmurs something soft against the beta’s ear and gives the back of his neck a gentle squeeze.

Then Jay slips out of the closet and the girls turn to stare at Ben expectantly.

He swallows hard. Given the context of their actions, it’s not hard to imagine what they want him to do. His first instinct is to protest—to insist that kisses aren’t freely given in Auradon—but he gets the feeling that they’re not freely given on The Isle either. It doesn’t matter that this will be his first kiss because Carlos is hurting and Ben is being trusted to help comfort him.

So Ben gently lowers his lips to Carlos’ and shuts his eyes. The other boy’s lips are chapped, but Ben doesn’t find the slight scratch unpleasant. Carlos quickly takes the lead, raising one gloved hand to tilt Ben’s head into the kiss just a little more. Warm breath fans over Ben’s cheek.

When Carlos finally pulls back, gaze a little clearer and smile a little stronger, Ben feels out of breath and dizzy. All in all, not a bad first kiss.

Driven more by instinct than by conscious thought, Ben swipes the scent glands on his wrists over Carlos’ neck and runs his hands through the white frosted curls. He presses soft promises against his packmate’s skin, with touch and with words. French and English spill from his lips in equal measure and Ben isn’t really sure what Carlos has been through, but he knows that it’ll never happen again. Not if he can help it.

“Shhh, princeling.” Mal’s hand cups Ben’s cheek and her thumb brushes away a tear. “Carlos is safe. Do you want to help him nest?”

Ben hiccups, his accent more French than Auradon when he whispers, “Please.”

It’s not until later, curled into the center of the pile with Carlos holding tight to his hand, that Ben thinks to question why they were the ones to nest and not Evie. The girls are asleep under Jay’s watch, one each spooning Ben and Carlos. For a moment Ben thinks he might have enough of Jay’s attention to ask, but then the alpha leans down and strokes through his hair and Ben melts with a soft purr that draws Carlos closer. The smaller boy tucks his nose against Ben’s bared collarbone, their shirts both tucked into the nest somewhere, and all thoughts other than _mine_ and _safe_ fade.

There will be time to deal with it tomorrow.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from All Too Well by Taylor Swift


End file.
